Eyes Like Yours
by Green Eyes Mesmerize
Summary: Oneshot, complete. PostVegnagun. Our favorite blonde thief runs into some trouble on the streets of Bevelle, home of the Al Bhed haters. Can she handle herself under threat? My first Rippal fic! PLZ R&R, but no flamers!


**Disclaimer: **I do not, nor will ever own FFX-2 or SquareEnix.

**Author's Note:** Before I get into the fic, just want to let my regular readers know that I think I'm gonna take my "Together" fic off the site since I've got writer's block on that one. Just don't know where to go with it. If I figure somethin out, I'll repost it.

Anyway, as to this one...yay! My first strictly Rippal fic! A post-Vegnagun one-shot capturing a moment on the streets of Bevelle. When things look ugly for our favorite blonde thief, a certain Machine Faction leader is there for her. Told through Rikku's eyes. Enjoy!

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**Eyes Like Yours**

"Heathen slut."

Those two words cut through me like a knife. But I had learned not to flinch. I was supposed to be used to it. I had been condemned as an outcast at my birth, along with many others like me. After all, "Al Bhed" was synonymous with "unwanted." I had lived with it for fifteen years of my life.

But two years had passed since Sin had been erased from the face of the earth, and people no longer had to fear the supposed "punishment" for their crimes. Things were supposed to be different now. My people were easing themselves into the circle of society in Spira and actually being accepted.

Apparently there were those who still harbored ill will toward my kind, as I found out the hard way on a late-night walk through the streets of Bevelle—the mecca for Yevonites. I happened to be in the city visiting Baralai, thinking he would welcome a friendly face among the stern priests and advisors that surrounded him.

I just shoved my hands deeper into the pockets of my zip-up hoodie and kept walking, keeping my eyes away from the group of boys in the alley I passed. Gangbangers, I was sure. No doubt they loved to spend their nights slinking around the alleys of Bevelle, their heads in clouds of marijuana smoke, looking for some girl to take to their beds.

No way in hell was I going to be next.

"Hey. What's your problem?" one called after me. I heard multiple sets of footfalls. Oh, geez, now they were following me. I began to walk faster.

Brilliant plan, genius—why did you decide to go walking in the dark of night in the biggest, most confusing city in Spira? It might be the Eternal Calm, but no one is completely safe yet. Who knows when that day will be?

"Where do you think you're going?" another one asked. They sped up, too.

I broke into a run. And so did they. I reached into my pocket for the Garment Grid I always kept on hand in case of an emergency. My fingers groped for a node and pressed the first one they found. The burst of light that followed made my pursuers slow to a stop.

And then they burst out laughing when the light faded.

"What's so funny?" I snapped. Only then did I notice how obscured my field of vision was. I looked down.

I had activated the Mascot dressphere by mistake. In my case I was an oversized Cait Sith doll.

Damn it.

I turned and resumed running. It was a difficult task while wearing such a bulky outfit, and I wasn't gaining much ground. "Oh, forget it," I said to myself finally. I reached for the Garment Grid again. Despite having stuffed paws for hands at the moment, I managed to activate the node I wanted.

Another burst of light and I was a femme fatale in yellow, red and green, wielding two lethal daggers—my favorite battle dressphere. A dangerous beauty. A thief.

I stared the boys down, spinning my daggers in each hand. They jumped slightly when I stopped. I flashed them a wicked smile. "Just try me," I dared them, my voice lowly and deadly.

To date there hasn't been a pursuer who didn't bolt when I finished that bad-girl routine. This was no exception. These Bevellian bigots didn't want to mess with me now that they knew what I was capable of. They ran off like a flock of scared chocobos, muttering things like "crazy bitch." Sure I didn't like being called a bitch, but if I were a crazy one, at least it kept people like them away from me.

Gloating, I sheathed the daggers. I breathed a satisfied sigh and turned around, and walked straight into a wall…in the form of a hard chest belonging to a guy bigger than the others.

Slowly I looked up at his face. His features were shadowed in the dark of the night, but I could see his dark eyes glittering. I immediately didn't like the prospect of sticking around. I made to leave, but found that I couldn't move. Then I saw that he was squeezing my arms so tight that I was numb. How the hell did he do that without me feeling him seize me?

Before I could say anything, he had pulled me into a side-alley. My back slammed against the brick wall.

"You're one of the Gullwings," he affirmed in a low, gravelly voice. "The destroyers of Vegnagun."

I just stared at him, too afraid to say anything. What would he do if I told the truth?

"I see the truth in your eyes. You're that Al Bhed girl…Rikku, isn't it? Cid's daughter?"

"If you can see the truth in my eyes you wouldn't have to ask me any of this," I snapped.

He snickered, put a rough-skinned finger to my lips. "A smart mouth like that can get you in trouble." I could hear the tiniest hint of malice in his voice now. He traced a slow, sensual path from my lips down my chin, my throat…down between my small—and thankfully, albeit with a bikini top, covered—breasts. Once he got down there that was it.

"I beg your pardon," I said indignantly and slapped his hand away.

"Aw, come on," he laughed softly. In response he pinned my wrists painfully against the wall, taking a slow step closer. If I weren't so scared and angry, I would have enjoyed it (and actually knowing the guy would have helped, too.) "Don't tell me you don't like it. Gippal said you did." And he mashed his lips against mine.

What the hell? This guy knew Gippal! And where exactly did Gippal get off telling people stuff like that when there had been nothing at all between us?

Now I was really mad. I did the only thing I could: I kicked this pervert in the groin. Sure enough he let go of me to hold himself in pain. I took off running…again. And I could hear footsteps behind me…again. Yevon, this was getting annoying.

_Wait a minute,_ I thought._ Since when have I ever run from a fight?_ Now that my hands were free I reached for my daggers again. I whipped them out and turned to face my attacker just as he was catching up to me, the beads in my braids clacking together. At the last second he stopped short and leaned back to dodge the blades.

He shot me an annoyed look. "Come on," he said, "if I didn't run off when you did that the first time, what makes you think I will now?"

"Unless you got something to fight back with, I suggest you do run," I retorted.

I heard a couple of clicks. "I'd say that's a good idea, Cid's Girl."

I'd know that voice anywhere. And by chance it belonged to the tall Al Bhed holding a gun to my pursuer's head.

Gippal.

My pursuer's dark eyes slid slowly, fearfully in his direction. Gippal only had to raise an eyebrow, and the guy bolted, disappeared into the night.

Spangled light surrounded me, and I was back in the sky-blue cami, blue jeans, white hoodie, and sneakers that I had been walking in. Gippal holstered his gun and looked at me standing there with an eyebrow raised. He snickered.

"_Fryd?"_ I asked.

"_Oui ymfyoc muug cu lida vrah oui tu dryd."_

I rolled my eyes. "Gippal, just where in Spira did you come from?"

"Well, when a man and a woman get together…"

"Not that, you sicko." I smacked him in the stomach. "I mean what are you doing here?"

"I came to see Baralai. What's your excuse?"

"Same thing."

His rakish features softened. "You know, you really should be careful, Cid's Girl."

I let out an impatient sigh. "First of all, as I've told you a bazillion times, I HAVE A NAME, FOR YEVON'S SAKE! Second, I can take care of myself."

"Oh yeah," he retorted sarcastically, "you did a great job with that guy who had you pinned to a wall."

Well, I didn't exactly handle that very well, but I wouldn't admit, especially not to Gippal himself, that he had actually been my saving grace. "I would have diced him if you had given me a chance," I said haughtily, trying not to show the fear that was subsiding now that the danger was past. "And that reminds me, where do you get off telling people about our personal life?"

"He must have overheard me in some café…wait a minute." His eyebrows shot up. "_Our_ personal life?" That stupid grin of his stretched his face to its limit. "Sweet! Hey, Bevelle!" he shouted to the sky. "Rikku's my girlfriend!"

"What the…? Who said…?" I just then realized my slip of the tongue.

Rikku, you idiot.

"Hey, Brother!" he continued. "Guess who's your new future brother-in-law?"

"_Femm oui crid ib!"_ I don't know what made me do it, but I grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him toward me, kissing him soundly on the lips.

When I backed out, Gippal looked at me with his one good eye. He made no move to get himself out of my grip. I couldn't tell what he was thinking. That was one of a long list of things I hated about him. But as I gazed at him, it came to me that though he had only one eye, I could never find another one like it, no matter how many Al Bhed with the signature swirly green eyes I might run into. And none of them would ever look at me the way Gippal did.

After what seemed like an infinite uncomfortable silence, he spoke, that infuriatingly sexy smile gracing his lips. "Well, Rikku, you sure know how to shut a guy up."

In spite of myself I smiled back. He kissed me, and I melted right into it, each letting our tongue explore the other's mouth. His hands crept up my neck and into my hair, freeing it from the ponytail. It fell like a blond curtain down my back.

I felt his arms wind around me like vines, his hands teasing their way beneath my top. I flinched at the touch of them on my bare skin, but it was exciting. My grip loosened on his shirt. I let my hands trace the contours of his comfortable chest before they traveled up his neck, weaving my fingers through his silky blond hair.

I was lost, lost in the flames of desire. These were the kind that could not be easily extinguished.

Nor did I want them to be. Ever.

_Came from Bahrain, got to Beirut,  
__Looking for someone comparing to you,  
__Tearing down windows and doors  
__And I could not find eyes like yours.

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Please please please review! I was so disappointed when I only got two reviews on my last fic, "Field of Paper Flowers." Am I not loved? -tear- Well, hope you like this one! Moogle love to all my readers! ;)

**Al Bhed Translations:  
****_Fryd?_** What?  
**_Oui ymfyoc muug cu lida vrah oui tu dryd._** You always look so cute when you do that.  
**_Femm oui crid ib!_** Will you shut up!

End lyrics are from "Eyes Like Yours" by Shakira.


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